Note-taking with Outline incorporates the best of OS X and the App functionality. Creating, organizing, storing and editing notes with Outline is as simple as that with a real paper notebook. Outline structure is flexible. It follows and reflects the way your ideas develop. Best Note taking apps for Windows, Mac, Android & iPhone / iPad 1) OneNote OneNote is one of the best note taking apps with a number of features and majority of them are for free. Since OneNote comes from Microsoft, it integrates with Office tools like Ms Word, Excel etc.
From that random idea that needs to be jotted down, to making complex notes and mind maps, in today’s day and age, it’s better to stick to a note taking application, rather than relying on physical pen and paper.
In our previous article, we saw some of the best note taking apps for Windows, and in this one, we have got you covered with our list of the best note taking apps for Mac.
Best Note Taking Apps for Mac
1. Apple Notes
The stock Notes app that comes with Mac OS itself, is actually not that bad. It comes with basic note taking functionalities like formatting, lists, checkboxes, drag and dropping pictures/files. While it doesn’t offer anything out of the box, where Apple Notes shines is how fast it is to open and get started with a new note. Also it syncs immediately and effortlessly with the Notes app on your iPhone and iPad. We highly suggest you first checking out this app which already comes with your Mac, before buying or installing another note taking app.
Pros:
– Very fast and simple to use
– Comes pre-installed
– Sync with notes app on iPhone and iPad
Cons:
– Not ideal for handwritten notes or drawings
– No charts, graph support
– Works only within the Apple Ecosystem
Bottom Line: If you are someone who needs to take notes on your computer very rarely, might be for a grocery list or quick information, you’ll get by easily using the stock Notes app. Apple Notes does offer all the basic functionalities you might need and best of all, you don’t even need to install another app.
Price: Free
Link: Use Apple Notes on iCloud here
2. Evernote
Chances are you have heard of Evernote, as it is one of the most popular note taking apps available on almost all platforms. Evernote offers some great ways to keep all your notes perfectly organised. You start off your note by creating/selecting a particular notebook and all your notes are kept organised in these notebooks. You also have a tags to classify all your stuff, and it basically works like a File Cabinet.
In terms of features, it is a beast and it has almost any and every feature you’d want in a note taking app including pie charts and bar graphs to searching text in a picture. We also strongly recommend trying Evernote with its Web-clipper companion which makes taking notes/clips form the web so easy, you can never go back. But all this does come at a price, which makes Evernote a little on the bulkier and slower side.
Pros:
– Feature packed to the brim
– Available on all platforms
– Easy organisation of notes
Cons:
– Heavy app and takes time to start up
– Costly
Read: Don’t Like Their New Pricing, Try These 8 Best Free Evernote Alternatives
Bottom Line: Well, if you are someone who has to take loads of notes and are also looking to keep them organised in the best way possible, Evernote is a really good investment.
Price: Free(Basic), $34.99/Year(Plus), $69.99/Year(Premium)
Link: Download Evernote from here
3. Unclutter
Unclutter is a neat tool which can increase your productivity by many folds. The app works almost like Sticky Notes; you can access it very quickly from any window you are working on. Just go to the top of your screen and scroll down, Unclutter should appear with its three windows: the first being the Clipboard, second being Files and the last being the Notes section.
Creating a note is pretty fast, just make Unclutter appear and start with your new note or even copy directly from the clipboard or even a file. Click on the ‘+’ to take another note and you can also see all your notes or search through them.
But do keep in mind that the notes you can take are pretty limited to text only and the absence of formatting and checkbox lists might be. Ideal breaker for some.
Pros:
– Easy access, one swipe away
– Pretty fast
– Comes with a Clipboard as well as a file holder
Cons:
– Supports only text notes
– No organisation
– No sync, only on Mac OS
Bottom Line: Unclutter is a very cool app where you can take notes in a jiffy, so we’d recommend this app for someone who is looking to take some quick text notes while working on their computer and doesn’t need any fancy formatting or feature.
Price: $9.99 (Free Trial available)
Link: Get Unclutter here
4. BoostNote
Next on our list, we have a note taking app specifically designed for programmers. BoostNote started out as a open source project and has gained a lot of popularity among the programming community over the years.
What this app basically allows you to do is store your code or code snippets as notes. You can access quickly or even take notes in markdown. Once you open the app, you can select if you want to create a markdown note or create a code snippet. And when I said it is meant for developers, I meant it. BoostNote supports code syntax highlighting in more than a hundred languages and it is also very easy to keep all your notes organised.
Pros:
– Supports markdown notes
– Code highlighting
– Plenty of syntax and UI themes
– Open source
– Available on all platforms
Cons:
– Bulky
– Takes time to startup
Bottom Line: Well the answer is obvious, this app is a blessing for programmers as they can now manage all their code snippets and keep them organised while also not losing on the ability to take notes in markdown.
Price: Free
Link: Download Boostnote from here
5. OneNote
OneNote is a full blown note taking application from Microsoft, which has been here for a while now. And over all these years, it feels like Microsoft has almost perfected the note-taking experience.
What separates OneNote its competitors is that it using the app feels very close to taking notes on a real notebook; you can write, draw, add pictures literally anywhere on the page at any orientation, just like on a paper notebook. It also comes with a ton of features, the biggest selling point would be built in OCR reader. While you can get it for free for almost all platforms, the Mac app is huge in size and a little slow to use.
Pros:
– Feature-rich note taking app
– Office integration
– Notebook like experience
– Completely free
Cons:
– Huge size
– Can be sluggish at times
Bottom Line: If you are invested even a little in the Microsoft space, OneNote is a no brainer and even if you are not and looking for a great digital notebook, OneNote won’t disappoint.
Price: Free
Link: OneNote is available here
6. Notability
Notability is our pick as the best note taking app for students. It works exceptionally well with the Apple Pencil on the iPad to create beautiful hand-written notes and sketches. You can rotate, scale, and recolour your ideas and sketches until your notes are just how you want them. You can even markup photos and annotate PDFs and once you’re done you can easily share them through Airdrop or any other storage service.
Notability keeps all your notes neatly organised and also syncs them up between your iPad, iPhone and Mac, so you can access them anytime anywhere.
Pros:
– Great for hand-written notes and sketches
– Support for pressure sensitive strokes of the Apple Pencil
Cons:
– No search tags
– No support for shapes
– Pricey
Bottom Line: If you have an iPad which you use to take or sketch notes, Notability works really well with the Apple Pencil and if you have the money to spend, just go for it.
A great alternative to Notability would be ZoomNotes which comes at a lower price, but offers almost all the features of Notability.
Price: $9.99
Link: Buy Notability from here
7. Journey
The next app on our list is Journey, which takes maintaining your daily notes to a whole new level. While Journey is aimed more to be a digital journal, you can still use the feature-packed text editor to take quick notes and Journey will keep them ordered by the date. You can also search through all your notes and even view them by locations. The app backs up and syncs all your notes using Google Drive and it should be imperative to say, it also does provide impressive security features to protect your privacy.
Pros:
– Keeps everything organised like a Diary
– Easy note taking
– Streamlined review of your notes
Cons:
– Costly
– Requires Gmail/Google Drive account
Bottom Line: Journey works best for noting down your everyday goals or writing something about your day. If you are looking to make the switch from a physical diary to a digital one, Journey might be your best bet.
Price: $16.99
Link: Download Journey from here
8. Manuscripts
With all the normal note taking apps or text editors, it gets really hard to note down or represent scientific equations, derivatives and mathematical graphs. Enter Manuscripts, a free note taking app made for scientists and scholarly writing. Describing it as just a note taking app would be an understatement as it is capable of much more from a writing a research article to penning down a book.
There are various templates which you can choose from and a plethora of import and export options including LaTeX.
Pros:
– Scientific Notes/Writing
– Solid import and export formats
– Citation and bibliography formatting
Cons:
– Not quick for taking simple notes
Bottom Line: Manuscripts is a capable and powerful app for when the going gets tough. Of course, it isn’t for the average Joe, but rather for taking scientific notes with equations and graphs. If you are looking for more of a digital laboratory notebook with support for experiment templates along with equations and graphs, check out Findings.
Price: Free
Link: Ger Manuscripts here
9. iThoughtsX
Last but definitely not least, we have iThoughtsX, a mind mapping tool that lets you organise your thoughts and at a glance see the whole project. Mind maps are ideal for brainstorming with means of keeping your ideas structured and nothing gets omitted out in the whole process.
Although it has a steep learning curve, it’s really easy once you get the hold of it. There are multiple templates and layouts from which you can start and there’s an impressive amount of built-in icons and clipart images.
Pros:
– Create perfect mind maps for summarising and meeting notes
– Task Management
– Hand-off feature(Start your min map on one device and finish on another device)
Cons:
– Steep learning curve
– Not good for other kind of notes
Bottom Line: Mind maps are especially useful for managers and developers or anyone managing a large project. So if you know you need to create mind maps, this app is for you.
Price: $49.99
Link: Get iThoughtsX here
Wrapping Up: Best Note Taking Apps for Mac
We believe that there is an app for everyone with their own particular need. So whether you are a student or programmer or businessman, we really hope that you could find at least one note taking app from this list suitable to your own needs. And that concludes our list of the top note taking applications available for the Mac. Don’t forget to connect with us and tell us your favourite app from the list or if we missed yours.
Bored of note taking in traditional way , so here you can take a look at the latest note -taking method . Here we list out the Best Note taking apps for PC and Smartphone .
At work, you will surely need to note down bullet points or you will need to note important tasks and other activities to be done. Since these days everyone uses computers and android phones, use of pen and paper has been reduced. So, in these computers and smart phones, where can you note down your important work easily? I am sure that you all might have come across various note-taking apps for computers and smart phones. These apps make it easier for you to remember your tasks and responsibilities.
Contents
- 1 Best Note taking apps of the year
Best Note taking apps of the year
You will never miss out to complete any work if you have noted all the points in your phone or computer. Now let us see what all note-taking apps are available these days to use in computers and smart phones. The note-taking apps mentioned below are some of the best cross-platform apps that make your work quick.
Now of you ever want to note down anything you don’t have to look for pen and paper use these Best Note-taking apps for Android , iPhone and PC to take easy notes .
Best Note taking apps for Windows
If you want to make quick notes in your windows system you can now do it with the comfort of windows note taking apps .
- Quip
- Cortana
- Simple Note
- Microsoft OneNote
- Evernote
- Sticky Notes
- Notepad
- Scrble
Read Also : Best free office software for Computer & Smartphone
What Are The Best Note Taking Apps
Best Note taking apps for Mac
Below given is the list of best note taking apps for Mac .
- Evernote
- Microsoft OneNote
- Simple Note
- Bear
- Google Keep
- Zoho
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Best Note taking apps for iPhone / iPad – iOS note taking apps
Like the above seen note taking softwares for windows and Mac , here is the list of note taking apps for iOS users .
- Apple Notes
- Bear
- Simple Note
Best Note taking apps for Android
- ColorNote
- OneNote
- Google Keep
- EverNote
- SimpleNote
- LectureNotes
- Omni Notes
Finally given above is the exclusive list of note taking apps for Android users .
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Best Note taking apps for Windows , Mac , Android & iPhone / iPad
1) OneNote
OneNote is one of the best note taking apps with a number of features and majority of them are for free. Since OneNote comes from Microsoft, it integrates with Office tools like Ms Word, Excel etc. Thus, the tool becomes more powerful for you to use. In this note-taking app, you can write, type and draw images related to the notes in your own way.
Another advantage of using OneNote is that, you can easily capture an image to add in the notes. You will not have to crop the image and waste your valuable time. OneNote will automatically crop the image you have selected to fit in the notes. Moreover, you can easily take the notes and refer for your future use. OneNote is compatible with both computers and smartphones.
2) EverNote
This is the next note-taking app for your computers and android phones which is very powerful. EverNote can organize all your notes very efficientlyand it has a cloud storage space of 60MB to store your data online. Like OneNote App, you can add images to this note as well. But an extra feature of attaching the pages of a website is also available with EverNote App.
This note-taking app is perfect for students since it can store any kind of data with any size and content. EverNote App is free for anyone to use but it only has a few features and it only provides a few of them to the user.
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3) WorkFlowy
Taking Notes App For Macbook Pro
Workflowy note-taking app works fully offline and it is also fast. It also gives an instant access to the notes you have saved without searching for it from a number o tabs in your browser. This app is very simple and it only has a very minimal interface. When you are creating a note and if you want to highlight or mark any points that are really important, you can do so with the help of hash tags.
You can zoom in or zoom out the notes to read and also navigating this app is very easy. You can just use the mouse pointer to zoom in and zoom out the notes you have added. With this Workflowy App, you can share the notes with others at your office. You also have the option of hiding the notes and add to archive with just one click.
4) Google Keep
With features like location reminder, alerts on pre-select times, Google Keep is our next choice of note-taking app which is hooked up to Google services. This app is compatible with IOS, Web, Android, Windows and Mac and has card based notes. Like Evernote and Onenote, you can add images along with the notes you jot down.
Google Keep App can transcribe the notes you type or write. It has the feature to record even your handwriting. The notes you type will be recorded in the form of messages with its memo feature. You can also synchronize your notes from one device to another with the help of nifty OCR in Google Keep. Apart from these features, you get access to colour codes and attributes to make your notes look unique from the rest.
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5) Standard Notes
You can access this note-taking app online with widget support and it comes with 100% privacy and AES – 265 encryption. The best highlight of using Standard Note is that you can access the notes you have created 5 years back. Isn’t that great? You can recheck all the important notes again if you require. Standard Notes app is the only one note-taking app which has an end to end privacy. Thus, this app sounds suitable for both office and personal work. Standard notes App is compatible with iOS, Android, Windows, Web and Mac.
To make your notes look more attractive, you get access to different themes that are changeable and it also allows you to add power extensions. You will never have to worry about losing any notes you have made in Standard Notes. This app is encryption protected with a secret key and no one can decrypt the notes. Only thing you have to remember always is the secret key. Without this, no one can retrieve the data.
6) Dropbox Paper
This app is a product of Dropbox in which you can work with your team. Dropbox Paper is another note-taking app that supports themes and is integrated to Dropbox. It also offers great collaboration tools. Usually, everyone uses Dropbox to save files in the cloud storage. The main advantage of using Dropbox Paper is, it gives a flexible workspace for the user to make notes easily.
This app is very simple since it has a very minimal design aids. You can type your data or copy and paste the link of YouTube or you can even tweet using this Dropbox Paper note-taking app. If you are working in Dropbox as a team or with any of your team member, you can easily make notes with them, share comments and even embed images. For any kind of creative work, this app is one of the best choices. This note-taking app called Dropbox Paper is free to use if you are an account holder of Dropbox.
Taking Notes App For Mac Os
All these above mentioned note-taking apps are compatible with both computers and smart phones. You can use it from anywhere you want. Anybody can use these apps in their computers or in android phones. Read about each app and learn the advantages and disadvantages and choose the best app that suits your need. So, do not wait. Make use of these amazing note-taking apps to make your work easier and hassle-free.